Goodness Quotes - page 3

When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyramids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know nothing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness. (John Adams)
In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy. View quote
Zachary Taylor
Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. View quote
Hans Urs von Balthasar
But goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
When virtue is pictured as innocence and innocence equated with childlikeness, the implication is obviously that knowledge and experience are no longer media of goodness, but have become in themselves contaminating. This is a very despairing outlook, in its way as black as Augustine's original sin, for it supposes that original goodness will in all likelihood be defiled...It surrenders the attempt to represent virtue in a mature phase. View quote
Marina Warner
Patriotism, often a thinly veiled form of collective self-worship, celebrates our goodness, our ideals, our mercy and bemoans the perfidiousness of those who hate us. View quote
Chris Hedges
As for King Hussein of Jordan, I cannot praise him enough. He is not only a friend, but a brother. His qualities as a man and his goodness of heart are enhanced by great courage and a true love of his country. View quote
Muhammad Reza Pahlavi
Plenty of kind, decent, caring people have no religious beliefs, and they act out of the goodness of their hearts. Conversely, plenty of people who profess to be religious, even those who worship regularly, show no particular interest in the world beyond themselves. View quote
John Danforth
An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is, to a vain and sensitive soul, a stinging insult. View quote
Frederick Rolfe
Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation. The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it. View quote
Maria Montessori
These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions and it is these people--amongst whom your life is passed--that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire--for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience. (George Eliot)
We too often forget that not only is there "a soul of goodness in things evil," but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous. View quote
Herbert Spencer
We have a lot of goodness in this country. And we should promote it, but never through the barrel of a gun. We should do it by setting good standards, motivating people and have them want to emulate us. But you can't enforce our goodness, like the neocons preach, with an armed force. It doesn't work. View quote
Ron Paul
I believe in goodness Mercy and charity I believe in a universal spirit I believe in casting bread Upon the waters. View quote
Leonard Nimoy
In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still. In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot I hesitate to draw a line Between the two, where God has not. View quote
Joaquin Miller
Goodness has no opposite. Most of us consider goodness as the opposite of the bad or evil and so throughout history in any culture goodness has been considered the other face of that which is brutal. So man has always struggled against evil in order to be good; but goodness can never come into being if there is any form of violence or struggle. View quote
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Goodness is not in the backyard of the individual nor in the open field of the collective; goodness flowers only in freedom from both. View quote
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Commanding goodness and forbiding to do evil (are) for the amendment and correction of society and the common folks. View quote
Fatimah
The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well. View quote
Ursula K. Le Guin
When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, an evasion simply muddles 'em. View quote
Harper Lee
Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness. (G. K. Chesterton)
Don't misunderstand me. I am not scoffing at goodness, which is far more difficult to explain than evil, and far more complicated. But sometimes it's hard to put up with. View quote
Margaret Atwood
I still believe in the nonviolent Jesus and the basic human goodness present in all of us. View quote
Martin Sheen
It is quite useless to declare that all men are born free if you deny that they are born good . Guarantee a man's goodness and his liberty will take care of itself. To guarantee his freedom on condition that you approve of his moral character is formally to abolish all freedom whatsoever, as every man's liberty is at the mercy of a moral indictment which any fool can trump up against everyone who violates custom, whether as a prophet or as a rascal. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. View quote
Khaled Hosseini